America West Airlines (NYSE: AWA) is a major US carrier serving more non-stop destinations from Phoenix, with greater frequency than any other airline. The carrier initiated service in 1983 with just three aircraft. Today, America West provides low-fares and full-service with modern, fuel-efficient aircraft and posts annual revenues of more than $2 billion. With over 800 daily departures, its route system includes 92 destinations across the US, Mexico, and Canada.
Strong distribution channels include Website
At America West, the pace is fast and they are quick to embrace new technology to improve customer service, reduce costs, and stay ahead of the competition. The carrier depends heavily on a number of valued distribution channels for booking travel and selling tickets – travel agencies, in-house reservations, and online through www.americawest.com, first introduced in 1996.
The Website gives America West closer customer contact and enables them to serve travelers directly. “We believe the Web is one of the most important distribution channels we have,” said Tom Trenga, Senior Director of Pricing. “With the high cost of processing tickets, the Website is very cost-effective for us, and provides our customers with a valuable service. More people are choosing the Web, so we can cut costs by moving some of the booking activities to a self-service application via the Internet.”
As customer demand for on-line services increased, America West realized that their web site needed more functionality – specifically, enhanced fare search capabilities – a feature that is important in the highly competitive airline industry. A more robust Website provides more host sessions and scalability going forward. The airline also wanted to time the release of the updated site with its new business friendly pricing structure, so a speedy solution was needed.
Saving costs by programming in-house
The airline took advantage of in-house programming expertise, and used Attachmate’s Verastream SDK (software development kit) to update their Website to take advantage of Microsoft® Windows NT® COM. COM (Component Object Models) allows for multiple users to book flights at the same time. Ben Scandlen, America West’s Manager of Programmers, headed the team of nine developers who worked on the Web project, along with four support staff.
The Verastream Airlines SDK enables the development of custom, server-based Web-to-host applications. It consists of Java™ and Microsoft COM APIs, allowing programmers to easily add host access capabilities to server-based custom applications. These APIs let applications interact directly with host systems.
During a three-day training session, Attachmate consultants instructed the airline’s developers and provided development support. “We realize that it would have been three times more expensive to have someone from the outside come in and do our Web project,” explained Trenga. Added Scandlen, “We didn’t want to lose control of the process, so we did the work in-house. This also allows us to change the application much more quickly.”
Site adds more features and functionality
The team ported the new site, which accesses the TPF host. When the project began, they used the ITA pricing engine, a newer technology. The low fare search technology connects via XML. Booking records are created via the Attachmate connection to the TPF host.
“With the old configuration, we had to dedicate servers to booking connections,” explained Scandlen. “With the new Web services platform, this is no longer necessary. The savings are not so much in hardware costs, but in the planning and management tools that allow changes to happen quickly.”
Fast turnaround puts America West ahead
From concept to completion, the Web project took about nine months. “We are very proud of the fact that we got this project done quickly by airline standards,” said Trenga. “It has taken other airlines two years to implement something of this scale.” The new version allows the airline to run an Attachmate product directly on the server for faster updates and enhancements.
The host connectivity piece turned out to be more technically challenging than anticipated. “We received a tremendous amount of support to make it work. Attachmate was there with us through the process,” noted Trenga. Scandlen agreed. “For example, the new application was tested on the development site, but when it went live on a faster server, it worked less efficiently. We utilized Attachmate know-how to help solve this issue.”
Customer satisfaction soars
“When the application was in beta version, we made it available to customers, so we could get their feedback,” said Trenga. “But when we took the beta site away, customers would call in, looking for it – in fact, it was the number one ‘searched-for’ item on our website and was driving more than 50% of the total sales volume.”
Transactions are in real time, with no delays in updating the back-end information on the EDS Shares host. “From an application standpoint, the new Website had performance increases across the board,” said Trenga. “This is great, because our customers also go online to get flight status and redeem their frequent flier miles.” He added, “Our customers were clamoring for the low fare search capability, and with the launch of the new application, they get what they need,” said Trenga.
In addition to flight arrival and departure information, customers can print a receipt that allows them to get through security without having to stop at the front desk. “America West was the first to offer this service and other airlines have followed suit,” noted Trenga.
According to Scandlen, “Each transaction used to take from 40 seconds to a minute, but now that’s been cut in half to about 20 or 30 seconds. We now have the capability to handle 300 concurrent sessions – and the application is scalable to add more, this is significantly better,” Trenga said, “America West has improved ticketing procedures and has lowered the cost of doing business.”